The conventional wisdom is that Americans love and celebrate only winners, without any affection left over for anyone in 2^nd to 1 mlllionth place.  However, this canard has now been exposed as baseless hokum.  OK, well, we still despise and ignore most losers, but we do have a place in our hardened hearts for a chosen few.

The tradition of lovable losers is as old as history, hearkening back to the first time the French lost a major battle, approximately 10,000 BC, when the French King Lâche Jaune was defeated by the Germanic tribes at the infamous Battle of the Running Franks.  Militarily, the French have since had a 12,016 year, continuous losing streak, only ocassionally interrupted by temporary military competence (e.g., Napoleon). But we love the French, don’t we ? They make great food and wine, invented oral sex and a much more fun method of kissing.  And Paris is a fantastic place.

Then there are historic losers such as the Cubs, Red Sox, , and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Despite inflicting decades of misery on their fans, they still sold out their stadiums.  Admit that unless they happened to be playing your team, you rooted for these lovable losers.  At some point these teams went from a source of mockery to pity.  I suppose now that they have all finally won a championship, people can hate them just as much as the Yankees and Lakers, right?

Back to the story. This tradition is now in full evidence in the Democratic Party.  Once again they have voted in Nancy Pelosi as their leader in the house of Representatives.  As the mostly Minority Leader of her party, she has managed to lead her fellow Donkeys to a dubious record of controlling the House for just 4 of her 12 years in charge.  Upon her re election, she opined that the American people did not want her party to change direction.  This sounds like a prescription for continued minority status to me.

An amusing side note is that the House Democratic leadership, all three of them, are over 75 years old.  I guess one could say they they are a “Depends-able”  group (Yuckity Yuck Yuck).  When you throw in the 65 year old Elizabeth Warren and 74 year old Bernie Sanders, does anyone else think that, just possibly, the Democrats might benefit from from new blood, possibly even a few sixty year olds ?

While the Democrats are at it, isn’t it time they dumped the losers headlining their prospects for the White House in 2020 ?  There was Joe Biden, the creepy old gaffe machine, announcing his interest.  This after losing his bid for the Democratic nomination no less than four times.  Does that record speak well of his viability in 2020, when he will be 78 years old ?  Why not just see if Mike Dukakis is willing to ride his tank down to DC, and give it another whirl ?  Word is that Al Gore and John Kerry would both make themselves available.  On to the white house !  Put the coat of arms on the wheelchair !

My suggestion is that they immediately dump Pelosi, and replace her with Theo Epstein, the guy who finally won world series in both Boston and Chicago.  Seems like he is the kind of turnaround artist they are in desperate need of down there in DC.  Plus he can score us all great seats in Wrigley.